Saturday, January 2, 2010

I failed hard and forgot to bring my computer and my iPod Touch with me to my parents house. This has made it very difficult for me to get a post in the last few days. I wish there was more for me to write about, but at least I got to play a few board games.

Illuminati

This is a game that I own. I don't play it much, as it's really best played with four or more players. The basics of the game are that you are one of the Illuminati (Gnomes of Zurich, UFOs, Assassin's Guild, etc). Throughout the game, you use your power and money to control various groups, from republicans to Goldfish enthusiasts.

The other reason I don't play this game much is that uses mechanics that make people kamakazi on each other, much like the Munchkin games. Once someone comes close to winning, everyone sabotages that person until one lucky person goes to win and everyone else is out of money.

If you like any of the Steve Jackson games, you'll like Illuminati. However, it doesn't really appear as a strategic or even political game, so if you want to win a game without the gift of luck, this probably isn't for you.

King Oil

King Oil is a game where everyone is drilling for oil. You use this fun little oil derrick to see how deep you have to drill to strike oil. Three plastic disks randomize where the oil can be found from game to game.

This game is no longer made and is hard to get ahold of. The one we played was so old the disks were warped and derrick was broken, so we juryrigged it with a toothpick which wasn't quite calibrated correctly.

The game was certainly novel. Hoping that you strike oil, knowing that you'll go bankrupt if it's not shallow got me going the first time. However, the game is very monotonous and like Illuminati it's very luck based. Unlike Illuminati, there's basically little-to-no strategy in this game, so playing it once or twice was certainly enough for me.

The rest of the weekend was spent playing more Pandemic and some other card games. But for those of you out there who are fans of random games, I figured these two titles would be a decent addition to your game library.